Seven Deadly Sins
by TheThoughtRepository
Summary: When something happens to spark a certain form of insanity inside Maka, she must now travel through the trials of the Seven Deadly Sins from Eibon's book, all on her own. Her mind is gone and body is out of control. Soul had no problem talking her out of slicing his neck open, but what about when she finally begins her spell? In the first chapter, Lust?
1. Prologue

**[Seven Deadly Sins]**

 **Prologue**

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"I can't believe after all this time we're still cleaning up after Arachne."

Maka panted as she ran down the streets of Loew Village, the air hot and sticky against her skin. She clenched Soul's staff in both of her hands, she could feel his irritation from all the way out here.

"There can't be many of them left. Let's just find this guy and collect his soul before he hurts more villagers." Maka said breathlessly, and slid to a stop.

She stared up at the factory before her, tall and gruesome golems standing lifelessly before her. Bitter memories of her and Soul fighting against a newly revived Arachne flashed in her mind. Her being completely paralyzed and useless and Giriko, Maka hated remembering that. She forced the thoughts away, focusing back on her mission as soon as Soul called out name.

Maka turned and felt a crushing blow in her cheek, her body tumbling down to the dirt with a grunt. She caught her stance at the last second, holding Soul up in front of her defensively.

"Oi Maka, quit dozing off!" Soul called out.

Maka wiped a drop of blood from the bust in her lip, gripping him tighter. "Sorry."

The pair stared up at the massive creature that attacked them, a surreal sense of nostalgia smacking them right in the face. A golem stood before them, meters tall, and a familiar mask sitting right up on its shoulder.

It was one of Arachne's foot soldiers. Everyone just figured when she was killed that her little minions would revert to the people they originally were, but most of them were killed in the war before any such thing could happen. Turns out some of them managed to escape and scatter across the world, looking again for a way to revive their long gone Queen.

They had been all over, causing trouble and mayhem for anyone in their way. Maka and Soul had a free day, so Lord Death suggested this mission once news came out that one of her little soldiers was in Loew Village. Maka and Soul were already familiar with the area, so they seemed like the best choice.

"I really don't get it. Arachne's dead, we have all of Eibon's tools, shouldn't they be normal or something?" Maka questioned, glaring at the villain in front of her.

"Arachne powered up these guys with Eibon's demon tools. I doubt it'd be that simple to just cleanse them." Soul droned. "Let's just get this over with."

Maka hummed enthusiastically. The next second the golem shot forward towards the two, the ground shaking with every stop and smashed it's hand down into the dirt. Maka jumped out of the way, a crater now in her old spot and rose up Soul's blade. She slashed at the Arachnid on the golem's shoulder, but he ducked, the golem now throwing its arm backwards.

Maka gritted her teeth as she blocked the hit with Soul's staff and fell back to her feet. She shifted left and right, taking on each hit with swift steps and glared daggers at her opponent. The golem lifted its stone arm and swung it down to smash on her head, but was met with the steel of Soul's staff.

Maka easily slid underneath and lifted her blade up to pierce the stone arm. Soul only managed to cut halfway through, before the brick got too hard to slice. Maka tugged on Soul to remove him, but he didn't budge. Panic bubbled in her gut as she sensed another attack coming behind her.

She ducked the golem's other arm and let Soul go, swiftly escaping and smashing the heel of her boot into the crack Soul's blade made.

The arm and Soul fell to the ground, and Maka quickly picked up her scythe.

"Let's finish this!" Soul called out.

Maka strengthened her soul and charged at the pair, sending her scythe down on the golem's head. She slashed at its body right after herself and slid back on her feet.

The golem crumbled. It's head and torso fell apart, rocks and stones stumbling to the ground in a giant heap.

Maka panted. Her eyes darted around the battle scene, wild and cautious, and gripped Soul tighter.

"Nice job." he commented.

"Yeah, but where's the–"

Maka screamed out. A searing pain stabbed at her shoulder with a burst of blood. She whipped around and froze immediately at what she saw. A pair of beady eyes covered by a spider's mask. She threw her elbow back and crushed his nose, swinging Soul's scythe in the same path.

A splurt of blood dropped down Soul's blade; completely piercing the chest of the Arachnid. Maka withdrew him, the body dropping to the dirt with a concluding _thud_.

Maka bit down on her lip. She gently brought her hand to her sensitive shoulder, but even then the mere touch had her hissing with pain.

"You okay?" Soul asked, his reflection gleaming in concern.

Maka looked to him in his blade. "Yeah, I'm fine. Can't believe he _bit_ me."

Soul started to chuckle then. He saw a soft ball of red light gleam to him then, and licked his lips hungrily.

Maka observed her wound as Soul peaked his body out of his blade and slurped up the corrupted soul. He transformed back to normal with a sated grin on his lips.

"Well, let's get back to Death City. We can check out that bite later."

Maka, who had her neck twisted and collar pulled to check it out, grimaced at the throbbing red bite marks at the nape of her shoulder. She sighed and straightened up her shirt, humming tiredly. It was to be expected at least, some type of injury. The last time they faced off against a golem ended very badly, Maka was even surprised to win without some kind of setback. She was suddenly grateful that Soul was a full-fledged Death Weapon now, or else that too, could have ended very badly.

She latched her hands behind her back modestly and caught up to Soul sauntering away, skipping up by his side. They walked away in a comfortable silence.

* * *

"Well Maka, nothing broken. Just some teeth marks, nothing to worry about." Naigus concluded, sending the meister a happy squint of her eyes.

Maka sat in the DWMA infirmary and twisted her neck to glance at her wound again. "Really? That's good."

Naigus finished taping her bandages onto Maka's skin and smoothed them other with her wrapped hands. "Just give it time, it'll heal over."

Soul watched quietly across the room, leaning against the old metal desk with a bored gleam in his eye. He saw Maka struggle to check out her wound, and retract reluctantly as Naigus covered the whole thing entirely. He didn't get why she was so bugged about a bite mark.

"It really itches, is that normal?" Maka questioned, testingly. "It's annoying me."

Her hand went to rub her shoulder as she said that with a huff, and Naigus gently removed her hand from doing so. "It's probably nothing to worry about. Though, try not to touch it. Don't want it getting infected or anything."

Naigus got up out of her seat and Maka went back to rubbing her patch, with an irritated purse of her lips. The door was suddenly kicked open then with a loud holler, and everyone's mood suddenly tensed as a certain pair appeared in the doorway.

"Oi Maka! I heard you got chomped on by some itsy spider, you're really losing your touch!" Black Star laughed, stomping his way in here.

Tsubaki peeked out from behind him with a smile, "Are you alright?"

Maka jumped off the bed with a huff, "I'm fine, it was nothing."

Black Star raised his arm up to flex his muscles, and grinned at the meister with a dazzle. "Betcha wished I was there huh? I coulda kicked it's ass no problem, eh Tsubaki?"

Tsubaki hummed in agreement. Soul kicked himself upright then and strolled over by everyone else. "We were just gonna head home. Ready Maka?"

She hummed and waved to Tsubaki, "See you guys tomorrow."

Black Star and Tsubaki said their goodbyes and the two left to go back down into Death City. The sun set down above the horizon, a long drip of drool slipping out of the sun's great mouth as it was almost time for it to sleep.

"Don't go thinking you're getting out of cooking tonight just because of that bite." Soul said to her.

He glanced over to his meister as silence replied, and saw her dazing off again; her fingers rubbing circles on her patch. Maka didn't even notice he said something until a soft chop of his hand hit her head. She blinked and looked to him, "What was that?"

Soul snorted in irritation, "You've been spacing out all day, what's gotten into you?"

Maka shrugged. She just couldn't seem to get those beady little eyes of that spider out of her mind. It was surreal to her, imagining up that scene again. Her wound throbbed each time she remembered it, and grew worse in itchiness. It frustrated her to no end.

She just didn't get why that thing would bite her, of all attacks. They didn't fight in a war and almost win by _biting_ people, they had magic and such. Why not use it? Maybe he was overexerting himself? He did make that golem come to life. Maybe he was just desperate for any type of damage.

"I was just out of it today. I'll be better tomorrow." Maka assured both him and herself. She raised a fist up and smiled widely at her partner, darting off down the street. "Come on! I have something great planned tonight!"

Soul blinked as she flew away from him and grumbled lowly. He took off after her. "Oi Maka! Wait up!"

* * *

Maka stirred restlessly in her bed. She shifted back and forth, on her side to on her back, a mess of kicking her blankets off only to tug them back up again. She opened her eyes again and groaned into her pillow. It was too irritated. The itch that stung her shoulder was literally driving her to madness. She rubbed her bandaged wound for hours and the result was never satisfying. She even considered ripping it off just to be able to use her nails on the evil thing.

She felt hot. Moonlight poured through her window and lit up her room dimly as she stared out to the bleeding grin that gazed right back at her. It's been a full week, and her bite mark was just as annoying as when she first got it. The throbbing stopped, the puffing settled, but it was still irritated to no end. She even went back to Naigus, worried that it might have gotten infected, but all she said was that it was the 'healing process'.

Bullshit.

Sweat dripped down Maka's body as she writhed. She felt so tired, so exhausted. She couldn't remember the last time she's actually slept. The stupid wound has kept her awake basically every night. She couldn't focus on anything anymore, she always felt off. Like something was out of place, something she couldn't put her finger on. She didn't want to worry anyone about this, but she could tell Soul was beginning to suspect something. He did that thing with the side-glances and prolonged looks of concern, as much as he knew she hated that.

Maka worried that bite could have been more than a bite. Maybe there was some kind of spider venom or something weird like that. She sorely remembered those beady eyes behind that mask. A shiver coursed through her spine, and she kicked her sheets off in an automatic reaction. It was too hot.

Maka got up slowly, wiping her forehead of sweat and staggered to her feet. She just wanted to sleep. She slowly made her way into the kitchen for something cold, and settled on the ice cream in the freezer. She resisted the temptation to stick her entire face in the bucket.

Maka spent her time prying the ice cream apart with a spoon, and felt a sudden loss of air for a second. She stumbled back, a black mass overtaking her sight, and shivered again. She blinked until her sight returned, and found herself halfway across the kitchen. She hated those spells. They were weird, like she was floating through space and time. She usually only got those when she stood up too quickly, but they had become more constant after Loew village.

Her skin shivered. She felt cold now. Topping the ice cream, she realized she wasn't even hungry. She just wanted to keep herself busy with useless activities. Hopefully to take her mind off of her exhaustion.

"Can't sleep?"

Maka nearly jumped out of her skin at that voice. She whipped around quickly, panic flooding her veins and let the ice cream drop to the floor. A _shink_ sounded through the kitchen as Maka gasped for a breath, another flash of those beady eyes popping up in her mind.

Tension brewed between the two as Soul hardened his gaze at her. He glanced down to the scythe protruding from her forearm, a mere inch away from his cheek, and looked back up to her. He rose an eyebrow. "Bad dream?"

Maka didn't even notice she transfigured herself. She sighed out, relieved, and let her blade sink back into her skin. She combed her bangs back. "Hungry."

Soul nodded as she bent down to clean up her spilled ice cream. "Usually hunger doesn't make you a paranoid freak."

Maka grimaced to herself. "You scared me."

Soul walked around to crack open the fridge and snorted. "I haven't seen you scared since we fought on the moon. You're just being weird."

"I'm not weird," Maka defended, dumping the entire ice cream bucket in the trash. Soul glanced to her as a slip of attitude entered her tone. "Don't sneak up on me like that."

"Hey, I'm the nightowl here. You're the one not supposed to be up this late." Soul said, casually. He drank a long gulp from the carton of milk and saw her turn towards him with a tick in her expression.

"Well sorry for being cautious! It's late at night, I thought you were asleep, what did you think my reaction would be!" she hissed.

Soul leaned against the open fridge door, and tilted his head at her. "When was the last time you've slept?"

Maka fumed out smoke. "What?" she snapped.

Soul bore his eyes into her. "You get grumpy when you're tired, but you're still more hostile than usual. What's got your panties in a twist?"

" _Nothing!_ " Maka yelled.

Soul narrowed his eyes at her fiery gaze. He matched her glare easily. "Quit yelling. You'll wake the neighbors up."

Soul kicked the fridge door shut and strolled over to her. He noted how hardly she was breathing now, how drenched in sweat she was and the clear emptiness in her green eyes. "Go get some sleep."

Maka scoffed a laugh. She shoved by him and headed towards the bathroom. "Yeah, I'll just go do that."

Soul flinched as she slammed the door shut and silence ensued in the apartment. He sighed and rolled his eyes. _What crawled up her ass?_ He had been wondering that for days now. Every conversation he tried having with his partner always ended up in an argument. He didn't get why she was so on edge all the time, always look over her shoulder and getting all jittery. It was like she thrived on screaming at him, it was so not cool.

Yet, despite all of that, concern really did fill Soul's mind. It was very unlike her. Of course she got pissed at him sometimes, but this was different. Something was going on with her, and any time he asked about what that might be she got all defensive and pissed again, and by then Soul was too mad at her to even try anymore.

A loud crash came from the bathroom and Soul looked at the door. It was still closed, but he saw her shadows scurry around in the crack underneath it. Maka breathed a hot curse.

She had another spell. Her sight got all blurry and she completely fazed out for a second there, and next she knew she was tripping and knocking glasses off the counter.

"You alright?" she heard Soul call out.

Maka swallowed harshly, shaking her head to clear her sight up. "I'm fine."

The bite in her tone was enough to send Soul away, back to bed, and she mentally thanked him for it. She didn't know why she felt so hostile towards him, it was something she couldn't help. Everything he did pissed her off. Everything anyone did pissed her off.

Maka breathed out a breath. She needed to calm herself. Her fingers trembled as she gripped the sink basin. Her skin was pale and moist and she hated how awful she looked in the mirror. _What was happening?_

She scratched at her wound again, the frustration just piling up inside of her gut. She wanted to shred her skin to pieces. Maybe that would sate it.

She just needed this all to stop.

* * *

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 **uh, soul eater fic? i've had this idea for so long i'm glad i actually got around to writing it :)**

 **review and tell me what you think!**


	2. Lust

**Seven Deadly Sins**

 _~Lust~_

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"Maka not coming?"

Soul sighed as he strolled into the basketball court. It was hot and sunny today, but had a nice enough breeze so that staying out too long wasn't unbearable. He shook his head at Kid who had asked that and caught the ball tossed at him.

"She wanted to stay home, didn't feel good today." Soul told him.

Everyone spread out on the court into their teams; Soul pairing up with Black Star and Tsubaki and Kid with Liz and Patty. Black Star got the ball first with a wicked grin.

"You know, Maka's been acting weird lately. Something going on with her?" Liz asked, too busy talking to notice Patty's pass.

Soul scratched at his hair, readjusting his headband. "Yeah I know. She doesn't talk to me though, so I can't say much."

Black Star hollered as he dunked a shot, nearly tearing down the entire hoop from the cement ground. Kid sighed at this, and leaned on his knees to catch a breath.

"Her soul feels different."

Everyone looked to Kid as he said this so nonchalantly. Confusion littered all their expressions. "It's a Meister thing."

Black Star scoffed then, "Yeah right, then why haven't I felt anything when I'm with her, eh?"

Kid bore his eyes at the ball of energy and vanity. "You're something else."

While his tone droned that in a very rude way, Black Star laughed nonetheless, going off in another rant about how God-like he must be becoming.

"I tried sensing her soul once, and it just feels off. It's unstable." Kid explained, "You really should get her checked out or something."

Soul sucked on his teeth with a bitter annoyance. It was a good idea, but the thing was that he'd been _trying_ to get Maka to see Stein for the past week. Every time she refused and slammed the door in his face. That girl was going to be the end of him.

"If I do then I'm gonna need backup to drag her out. She's being totally anti-social and a pain, but I can feel it too. Something's with her, she doesn't feel like herself." Soul sighed. He dribbled the ball back and forth between his hands.

With a snap of his wrist, he tossed the ball into the net. Tsubaki caught the ball as it fell to the ground. "I hope she's okay, but Maka's tough. I'm sure she'll be fine. It wouldn't hurt to have her looked at, though."

Soul nodded shortly and sniffed his nose. "Yeah."

* * *

"Maka?"

Soul looked around the apartment as he shut the door behind himself. He squinted in the dark, and his gaze was lead to a blue light in the living room. The TV flickered as if the satellite went out and was never bothered to be turned back on; yet Soul was more interested in the unusual movement on the couch before it.

Maka sat, her knees pulled to her chest and chin atop them. Soul glanced between her eyes and the TV she was mindlessly staring at. He flicked it off.

"Maka." he said sternly.

She didn't even blink. But, she did move. She stood up quietly and brushed past him towards the bedrooms. "I'm going to bed."

Soul caught her bicep, "Hold on a second. How are you feeling?"

Maka paused, but tugged her arm away. "Fine."

Soul hardly believed that. He instead snorted out his nose and brushed her pigtail back over her shoulder, revealing the bandaged wound from Loew village. "Is this 'fine' too?"

Maka smacked his hand away and turned back, "Leave me alone."

"Oi," Soul bared his teeth, "Just come with me to Stein, you know he can help."

Maka opened the door to the bedroom hallway and stormed out, raising her voice considerably as she seethed, "No."

"And why not?" Soul insisted, following her path. "Why are you being such a pain about this?"

His words went ignored as she opened her bedroom door, but Soul easily slammed it back shut and stuck his face in hers, "What is wrong with you?"

" _Back off!_ " Maka yelled, "Why don't you stick your head in someone else's business instead of mine, alright? I'm not going anywhere and I'm not doing anything with you, so get over it and shut up about Stein!"

Soul glared at her, " _Maka–_ "

A harsh slam cut off his words, whatever left of his sentence being swallowed with a pit of anger. He had to glare at the door now and huffed out, calming himself down.

Whatever. Soul turned and headed towards his own room, yet not without a final declaration of himself.

"I'm dragging your ass to Stein tomorrow! I don't care what you say!"

A part of him rather it be tonight, but it was already late. Stein was probably asleep, and Maka had already pissed him off enough for one day. It'd be better tomorrow, with some help.

Maka on the other hand bared her teeth at that shout. She stood in the middle of her room, panting heavily as she felt her skin literally crawl.

Why did she say that? Why did she snap at Soul like that? It wasn't what she wanted to say, not at all. She wanted to go to Stein, hell, she would be _begging_ for it if she could.

Maka was out of control. Literally. She opened her mouth to ask for help and the exact opposite came out instead. Every time Soul asked about Stein she practically saw it as beacon of sunlight, but darkness always came right after when she ended up turning down the offer.

Maka hasn't felt fear like this in a long, long time. She could feel the insanity just squirming around inside her, beneath her skin and in her gut; it sickened her. She was going mad, but it wasn't like before.

It wasn't like this when she fought Crona. She felt mad, but it wasn't like how it was supposed to be. It felt like an entirely new insanity all on its own, and that simple thought sent shivers down the crevasses of her spine.

Something was inside her. Something was consuming her, she felt it, and she couldn't scream for help even when she wanted to.

The room tilted for Maka. She clenched onto her dresser, digging her nails into the hard wood and stumbled. She waited anxiously, impatiently for the spell to end, but they were getting longer, more intense. She felt completely disembodied during those moments, like her soul was some small speck of light in a world of darkness, unable to do or say anything.

A wave of heat fell over Maka, and a blur of her surroundings began to slowly fade back. She blinked rapidly and struggled to catch her breath, a drop of sweat sliding down her cheek. She was still so exhausted.

Though, in that moment, as she finally had the will to look up from her gripping hands, Maka experienced a whole new kind of fear as she stared in the mirror, and realized she didn't recognize who was staring back at her.

* * *

Soul dreamt of himself. He sat in a lone lounge, late at night, and heard soft jazz flowing throughout the nearly desolate room. He realized it was himself playing the piano on the corner, and for once, he remembered when he actually felt some sort of joy from doing so.

That joy was short lived though, as the lights began to dim around him. The people sitting at the bar either stilled like a statue or simply disappeared, and something filled the air that was similar to a thick fog. Though, nothing could be seen.

Soul felt it weighing on him though, harder and harder, until it was crushing on him like a boulder. The room swayed like tidal waves, everything was distorted and warped, but Soul kept playing. Even his music sounded different, darker.  
It wasn't until his eyes connected a stubby pair of legs, that his fingers hesitated. Then he stopped. Soul lifted his eyes to a familiar ear to ear grin, and recognized this presence immediately as one he reluctantly knew very well.

The demon sat before him, swinging his legs and chuckling with a humorous tune. This usually wouldn't have concerned Soul to see the little guy prowling around in his subconscious, but similarly, like how the rest of the night had been as well, he was different.

His skin was blue. A dark, leathery blue.

He smirked, and clapped his hands.

Soul awoke with a sharp intake of breath. His sight blurred heavily in the dark of his bedroom, the tight grasps of sleep still hanging over him. His eyes nearly slid back closed again, but a movement caused them to spark open again. One that wasn't his.

His heart beat rapidly, his skin felt like molasses, like lifting a gooey chunk of muck from the ground. Before Soul could even clear his eyesight properly, he felt a thick presence hovering over him. It aired off gulps of insanity.

Soul nearly jerked upright in his bed, but he froze. His skin shivered. He felt something cold pressed sternly along his throat, his eyes caught in the green ones above him.

" _Don't move._ " Maka uttered. Her voice was thick in malice.

Soul tried not to swallow, in fear the _blade_ being pressed to his jugular might shift. He stared up at his partner, hunched over and warbled, and felt a sickening twist in his stomach. A grey scythe protruded from her forearm fully, the length of it practically enough to slice his bed in half, along with his head.

"Maka," Soul breathed out, holding his hands up. He attempted to reach for her.

" _Don't_ ," she gritted.

Her eyes were empty. Even now, in the near pitch black, Soul could see the dulling fade in her jade eyes. She was gone, completely.

"I can't let you go. I can't let you go. You know, you _know_ too much." she muttered, her breath barely above a whisper. "You've seen it, you've _seen_ it."

Soul switched his eyes between hers as she blubbered madness. Words spewed out of her mouth one after another in a slur of madness, speaking nonsense about things Soul could hardly even understand. She was so tense and rigid above him, the fingers that pushed his shoulder down into the bed, the fingers that clenched his bare skin, were so freezing. Her skin felt like ice.

"Hey…Maka? Can you hear me?" Soul asked, his voice a breath. He searched desperately for some kind of glimmer in her eyes.

And he found one. But, not the one he wanted, or expected.

Her green eyes gleamed as they became glassy. Water welled up around the edges, threatening from spilling right onto his nose. Her teeth bared at this, a furious fire now trying to replace those tears to cover it up. Soul flinched as she slid her scythe across his skin, blood dripping down into the dip of his collarbone.

"Stop it– _stop it!_ Stop!" she yelled, "I'm not going!"

"Maka let me go," Soul said. He reached for the end of her blade, gently pressing his palm into it to lift but she snapped. He muffled a groan as she dug it deeper into his wound.

"I just…I just…" her voice broke as she sniffed, and Soul couldn't tell whether she was upset or outright livid.

He felt a drop of water on his nose. "Maka listen to me…I know you can hear me in there."

This wasn't her first run with experiencing this amount of madness. Soul knew just as well as her how intense and difficult it was to be under its effects, it was a suffocating weight on your chest that couldn't be lifted without an extra hand. He snapped her out of the madness once, he could do it again.

"Maka, you're scared–"

"I'm _not_ scared! I should kill you, _I should kill you._ " she seethed, sliding her scythe deeper into him, "No, I have to. I _have_ to kill you."

"No you don't," Soul said quickly. He pressed his palm against her blade harder to keep it from his skin. "Snap out of this Maka! You're stronger than this, come on!"

He didn't want to hurt her. She wasn't okay, but he couldn't just sit here and let her cut his head clean off. Another word could snap her into doing so and Soul didn't like taking that kind of chance. He was well aware how much stronger she was than him.

"Get off me," he tested. She began blubbering again, words spilling out one after another about things Soul didn't particularly care for. She pressed harder and harder down on the slit on Soul's neck, and he could feel his arms weakening from holding her weight above him for so long.

He could feel himself slipping.

 _"I have to kill you!"_

"Maka!"

A crashed thudded throughout the room. A pile of splinters and wood fragments laid beneath a hole in the wall. Soul gasped for a breath at his release, cradling the stream of blood dripping down his neck onto his chest. His arm, now currently a scythe, changed back into normal with a beam of light, and saw a similar one at the foot of his bed.

He immediately sat up and jumped to his feet, circling around to find his meister in the pile of wood across his bed. Her scythe was gone, and Soul felt a sick twist in his gut as she laid there, still and unmoving.

He cursed loudly, flinging debris off of her and checked her for injuries. He was surprised to have found none. Not even a scratch from the hit, yet she still blacked out. Shakily, he checked her for a pulse and a heartbeat. He felt relief like no other when he heard her heart beating through her chest. She was alright.

Hopefully.

In a way, he was glad she was unconscious. There was no way he could have survived a fight against Maka, especially under her type of affects which added a major power boost. He couldn't help but wonder though, why she acted like she did.

It wasn't like before. She was literally….insane when she fought Crona. She was all happy and giggly and crazy, but here she was just out of it. Completely gone. Soul didn't understand, and he didn't like that he did.

He knew who would understand though, and a part of him cursed himself for not taking this problem seriously enough. He should have brought her to Stein earlier.

Deciding this was no time to beat himself up for it, Soul refused to wait any longer. It was the middle of the night, but he would deal with Stein's grumpiness when the time came. Soul picked Maka up and went straight for his motorcycle outside. It took him a minute to figure out a position to hold her and drive at the same time, and with a few (unmentionable) try and fails, he figured placing her in the small space in front of his legs would work best.

Leaning her back against his arm, and her legs across his, Soul set off. He hated the anxiousness stirring in his gut. He felt nauseous, in a panic. He didn't know what in the hell was happening, but the faster he rode out of the city towards Stein's house, the better it made him feel.

He cursed the trip for taking so long though. It was dark and quiet, the flood lights of the houses he passed were basically the only thing to illuminate his path, as one of his lights were broken and he had forgotten to get it fixed. He had trouble maneuvering and turning so sharply with Maka practically in his lap like this, and the thought of _'the things I do for this girl'_ made a happy return in his mind.

The houses slowly got further and further apart as Soul made his way closer to his destination. He knew once he began to see the creepy, twisted and broken trees that he was getting close. A dim light barely showed Soul the paved road, wilderness flashing by him like a blur of black that shielded the chuckling moon from letting Soul receive any more light than he needed. He knew that once he heard a moan though, that the light would be the least of his problems.

Maka started to wake up. He glanced down to her, as he had been doing constantly throughout the ride, and felt her shift against him.

"Maka?" Soul called out.

Her eyes fluttered open, her green irises being the source of the smile that grew on Soul's face. She looked all around her, ignoring whatever Soul was saying to her, and gazed back up to him beside her. Her eyes dulled again.

"You're one psycho you know that?" Soul admonished, keeping his eyes on the road. "First you nearly cut my head off and now–"

The motorcycle swerved rapidly as Soul struggled to control his handles, watching with a wild eye as Maka swiveled in her seat and swung her leg around to the other side of the bike. She faced Soul now, a mere inch between the two and smirked at the curse that spilled out of her partners lips.

"What the hell are you doing Maka, I can't see!" Soul snapped, ducking to look at the road beside her. She stayed quiet though, tilting her head innocently as she let her gaze wash over him in a heated stare. A devious smirk grew on her lips.

"Mak—"

Soul felt his words get cut off sharply by his tongue, whatever was left of his sentence shattering apart into a breathless wind exiting his mouth. He felt a warmth spread across his neck, feeling Maka press her lips upon it, the soft glide of her tongue across his skin enough to make anything else left in head disappear forever. His stomach twisted unnaturally as this sensation, yet he could only stare bewildered out to the open road.

"I've always loved you on this bike," she whispered, huskily. Soul felt her hands press up against his chest, gripping the fabric of his shirt and kneading it.

"Maka…" Soul wanted to say so many things, most of them in the _'what the hell'_ category, yet he found that he nothing made it out of his mouth. He didn't know what to say, what he _could_ say; he was speechless.

Her arms wrapped around him in an embrace as a giggle passed her lips, and he felt her tilt over to kiss the sore wound on the other side of his neck. He clutched the handles as the bike swerved, hissing out in pure annoyance. "Maka quit!"

Her smile only grew as he yelled at her, dipping a hand under his shirt to reach his skin. "Come on Soul, won't you play with me for a little while?"

He gritted his teeth as she continued to search under his shirt with her hands, drawing lines with her nails and exploring every inch of skin she could touch. She placed more open mouthed kisses along his neck, and with that felt a short push on her shoulder away from him. "What are you talking about? Maka quit messing around, I'm trying to _drive_ here."

His hand had to go back to the handle before he could properly back her off of him, resulting in her reverting back to what she was doing a second before. She leaned over and Soul's stomach jumped as he felt the sole of his boot scrape along the gravel of the road. He shakily balanced himself out again, all the while trying to keep his _insane_ meister from falling off as well, and felt her hands slowly drag themselves down his chest.

A hand hooked around his waistband, a soft tug of them causing Soul to nearly jump out of his skin. Maka laughed loudly though, her eyes lidded playfully with lust and bit her lip at the sight.

"Hey Soul~" she sang, barely a whisper under her breath. His eyes were forced to connect with hers, and he absolutely hated how his stomach churned at the devious gleam in her jade eyes.

"Why don't we pull over and take a little break, huh?" she smirked. Her fingers started to unbuckle his belt, and that's when Soul really did begin to lose his balance. He desperately tried to find the road behind her head and sacrificed a hand to swat hers away, but the feeble attempt was only met with another scare of them both flipping over.

"Maka! Knock it off!" Soul said loudly, glancing quickly between her and the road.

Maka merely sighed a breath and she unlatched the hook, raising her eyes back up to her partners with the devil in her eye. She forced her eyes to meet with Soul's, despite how much his eyes darted around her to avoid the look he knew she was giving him. His eyes whipped straight down as he felt her undo his button, his mind in a flurry of panic. '

He swallowed thickly, "Maka…"

His words went trapped against his lips, and flowed easily into hers. She kissed him fully and without any hesitation, bringing her hands up to tangle themselves in his messy hair.

Soul stared wide-eyed at the girl, her eyes fluttered close and nose pressed up against his; he felt frozen. Except for that skip in his heart. His eyes darted up again despite, realizing he was still unable to see the road.

The screech of tires against the pavement was the only thing Soul remembered after that.

He felt a raging stinge of fire against his skin, a pain he could see in his eyes as a multitude of colors swarmed above him like smears of a paintbrush. A shiver coursed down his spine that stabbed at him like a knife when he moved, his skin sensitive and vulnerable.

He crashed? No, _they_ crashed. Maka…where was she? Was she alright?

Soul wondered everything with a tremendous speed, blinking rapidly to clear up the shapes and colors he was imagining. Soon enough his gaze cleared up, his chest heaving for a breath as he stared at the gruesome chuckling moon above him. Everything hurt. It hurt to move.

Someone blocked the moon from his sight though, and he recognized those pigtails anywhere. He felt the familiar feeling of her sitting atop of him again, and felt despite the relief flooding his senses, he knew he should feel fear too.

Soul sat up but was shoved down to the ground harshly, muffling a groan from escaping his lips.

"Now, where were we?" Maka's voice chimed out. Of course she wouldn't have a scratch on her. The moonlight illuminated her, from her pale skin to the dullness in her jade eyes above Soul. She began to reach her hands underneath her shirt, causing a churn in Soul's gut again. And not a good one.

"What are you doing?" Soul breathed out, the clasps of unconsciousness still grasping at him.

He watched with heavy eyes as she tugged her shirt up and over her head, flipping her pigtails behind her shoulder and tossing it away. Her head tilted as she was left in her bra, admiring how blatantly he was staring at her.

"I can tell you like what you see," Maka stated, with a breath of confidence. She smirked and glanced down to her chest, "I know I know, they're not that big, but boobs are boobs right? We can still have some fun."

Soul struggled with squirming out from under her, an ache in his back, and felt her press her giggle onto his cheek. He felt her maneuver their lips together as she hands grasped at his waistband again.

"Stop, Maka," Soul managed out, pulling away from her. It hurt to even do that, he wasn't well. "You're confused, just snap out of this alright?"

He didn't have the energy or patience to yell at her anymore. It was obvious she wasn't listening.

" _Stop?_ " she nearly burst out laughing, "Oh come on Soul! It's totally not cool to leave a lonely girl like me all by herself."

He pressed his hand to her hip to try and push her off, "Yeah a lot of uncool things have been happening lately." he grimaced, "And you trying to bang me in the middle of the woods is definitely one of them."

Maka leaned over, placing her hands on either sides of his head and smirked at him. "Is it? _C'mon_ , even you have to admit that kiss was good."

Soul's stomach twisted again, his eyes forced to meet with hers. He just didn't understand. First she was trying to kill him and now she was this sex-addict? Nothing made sense, none of it. Why was she acting this way, what's gotten into her to make her like this?

Stein. Soul needed to get her to Stein.

He sat up again, only to be pressed back down with another kiss to his lips, and willed himself away. He fought through the pain and shoved her off him, sprawling back on his bruises to put some distance between them.

She merely found this enticing and giggled, walking on all fours to him backing away. "Soul~c'mon…"

Soul breathed a sharp curse as he struggled to stand up. His hand found the spinning tire of his motorcycle, a little crushed and smoking, but still in good shape. He used that to help him stand, staggering around to pick up the bike and bit back a groan of pain. He wouldn't be surprised if every bone in his body was broken, it sure as hell felt like it.

Maka rose to her feet as well, and Soul could see clearly now in the moonlight that even she had a bad cut on her forehead. Blood soaked into hair; it looked painful as hell, but she was as giggly and flirty as ever. She didn't even feel the pain.

"We're going to Stein, _now_." Soul zipped up his pants with a glower. "Get up."

Maka laughed manically as Soul raised her to her feet by her arm, stumbling around like a drunk in a stupor. " _Sir yes sir!_ " she wailed.

She stumbled and threw herself right in his arms, the fuzzy warmth coating her cheeks pink as she embraced her partner. "You should boss me around more, you're always such a pushover with me. I like it."

Soul dodged another kiss by her and she went for his jawline instead, but her lips barely grazed him before he was pulling her back again. " _Maka_ , would you get a hold of yourself already? Get on the bike, we need to get to Stein's."

Soul felt her toss herself onto him again and he bit back a very annoyed groan, the pain in his side not reacting too kindly to her sudden weight on him. He opened his mouth to try and yell some more sense into her, but as he felt the unusual sensation of her lips _not_ on him, he let the words die out.

"Maka?"

She didn't move. She slumped in his arms, her knees giving out and eyes rolling to the back of her head. Soul held her up and studied her face, finding her completely blacked out again. Panic bubbled within him despite this not being the first time, and lowered his head to check her heartbeat just in case. The churning subsided as he heard the steady thump of her heart sound through his ear.

He finally got a breath to himself. Soul took a second to clear his mind of everything utterly insane that had been happening, trying to relax himself and think clearly, though the fact that we was pretty much covered in Maka's saliva was pretty hard to shake. He forced out those images of her kissing all over him, and replaced it with the undoubted _fit_ she would have later on about it once she got better.

Yeah, that cheered him up. She just needed to get better.

Soul tried once again getting Maka back on his bike, and hurried his way onto the road before she woke up again and either tried to kill or sexually harass him. He didn't know which one would be worse.

Constantly glancing to her state as he drove, Soul disliked the little prickles in his gut. She looked so peaceful when she slept, it was agonizing not knowing how or what she'll do when she wakes up. Soul hated being so clueless about this. Luckily, she stayed asleep the whole ride.

He picked up his partner from his bike and carried her to Stein's door, giving a harsh knock until he saw a light flick on in the window.

Stein slowly made his way over and opened the door, rubbing his eyes from sleep and placed his glasses on to see clearly in front of him. He stood there, quietly observing the two children covered in dirt and blood and disgruntled in their clothing, (one not even wearing a shirt) and heard Soul scowl with an exhausted look in his eye.

"You gonna let us in or what?"

* * *

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 **review?**


	3. Greed

**Seven Deadly Sins**

 _~Greed~_

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"You gonna let us in or what?"

Professor Stein raised an eyebrow at the snark in the young boys tone, and stepped aside soundly. He widened the door for the obviously exhausted pair, watching as Soul dragged and dropped his partner on the couch in his living room.

Soul's eyes shifted around the room, still slightly discomforted by all the lab equipment and unusually stitched furniture that's been continuously opened and sewn back together. He let Maka slump out of his arms, her limbs hanging off the sofa sloppily.

"It's late." Stein stated, not necessarily as a complaint, but rather as a question for why these children were out getting busted up and half naked at four in the morning.

Soul sighed loudly and fell into the armchair next to his meister, sending a glower to the man, "Sorry to disrupt your beauty sleep."

Stein closed the door and approached Maka. He noted the obvious signs of her condition, her limbs were limp and eyes rolled heavily to the back of her head. He picked up her arm and let it fall.

Stein noticed the gash on the side of her forehead then, and picked out the strands of her bangs from the drying blood. "What happened here?"

Soul watched the two tiredly. "My bike crashed. By the way, you got any medicine?" he got up to head towards the bathroom, "Or an X-Ray machine?"

Soul was half joking on that last part, but with the location of the first aid kit in the bathroom and an actual X-Ray scanner next to the fridge, he trudged his way in and out of the stitched rooms.

Soul came back with the kit and settled next to Maka on the floor, popping open the case.

Stein stood to the side and let the young boy take care of his meister, gently patting the blood off of her forehead and bandaging it up with a simple bandaid. It seemed her wounds were healing quite remarkably.

"She needs to stay here tonight." Soul stated, without an inch of wiggle room in his tone. He looked up to his professor as he finished taking care of Maka. "I don't trust her alone anymore. She's dangerous."

Stein was truly intrigued by the situation that popped up at his house, and despite the many questions that he had about what was happening, he still found his eyes drooping from having to awaken at such a late hour. He already was typically a night owl, staying up to the late ends of the night to work on experiments and such for both himself and Lord Death. It was quite exhausting.

These kids look like their night was a little more rough, though.

"I have a spare bedroom." he suggested.

"No," Soul grimaced as he stood up, clutching his chest, "Something more secure. She's gone mad, I think. Just something to keep her in place until the morning."

That word sparked something in Stein. He found it concerning, unusually concerning almost, not by the fact that it was the simple _word_ that stirred something within him, but that the mere presence of a soul _overcome_ with madness didn't do the same affect. He out of all people should have noticed if the soul was as overtaken with madness as Soul said.

This situation truly had him on his toes. He felt that gnawing sensation of exhaustion slowly fade away as curiosity filled its place. He itched to know more.

"I have a room," he repeated, as he picked Maka up from the couch.

Soul followed warily behind the scientist and came to saw the 'room' his professor had in mind. He stopped at the foot of the doorway, discomforted, but not surprised.

A giant cage filled the space of the barren bedroom, metal bars surrounding the walls that looked years older than the man himself. Scratch marks from claws led a very distinct pathway to the door of the cage, and upon further inspection from the weapon, the same creature that made those marks probably also made the bite indents on the steel bars.

Stein placed Maka on the floor of the cage gently and closed the door with a small squeak. He cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses, casually.

He noticed Soul staring at the confinement blankly.

"I had to test an experiment once. It's alright, it's dead." he explained, with his hands on his hip.

Soul watched as Stein dismissed himself and left the room soundly, and looked back to Maka. He rolled his eyes and exited himself, whispering a variety of comments to himself.

He found Stein sauntering down the hallway, "So what do you think's happening?"

The professor didn't even look back as he went into his bedroom. "I don't know. Let me think on it, you can give me more details in the morning."

Soul scoffed as the door shut in his face. He wondered furiously _why_ everyone was doing that to him.

* * *

Only a few short hours later, Soul found himself shocked awake from his slumber on the couch. He was overcome with dizziness and an awful ache in his side as a familiar voice echoed throughout the home. He felt a whoosh of air rush by him.

"MAKAA!"

Soul whipped all around him in a stupor of sleep, "…Spirit?"

The room was empty to Soul, the front door wide open and a loud sobbing down the hallway. Maka's dad appeared as the cries of sorrow got louder, sniveling pathetically as he returned to the one person he knew would have an explanation for the disappearance of his daughter.

It was Stein, but Soul was the next best thing.

" _You!_ " he growled, fuming in the archway. He glared furiously at the death weapon sprawled on the couch. "I always knew you were no good!"

"Huh?" Soul drawled. He was dragged to his feet by his shirt then and slammed against the wall, disgusted by the snot and tears covering the face a few centimeters away from his own. "The hell you doin' old man!"

"What happened to my Maka!" he demanded, shaking the boy furiously, "Why is she in a cage! She's not some animal you asshole!"

Soul grew heated now, gritting his teeth at the incessant jerking, "I know that! You don't think I know that?! Get off me, you're gross!"

Soul pressed his palm to the man's face and shoved, but the sobbing father refused to even budge.

Professor Stein, now awake from all the endless screaming stalked into his living room. He had a tick in his forehead, where a mighty big headache was living also. He sighed at the man assaulting the young boy and rolled his eyes.

"And why the hell is she shirtless! If I found out you did anything to my baby or even _looked_ at her I'll kill you myself!" Spirit bared his teeth. Soul glowered at the man in annoyance, still trying to squirm out of his place.

"There ain't nothin' to look at anyways, get off!" Soul hissed, "She took it off herself, I didn't do nothin'!"

Spirit slammed the short boy against the wall again, "Maka's not some easy fling, you lie! Especially with a loser like you!"

Soul was about to roll his eyes into the back of his head. He tightened his jaw in hopes he could himself back from smacking some sense into the grown man, but as he felt that restraint slipping, he turned to the only other man who could do something.

"Stein! You wanna get this psycho off me?" he managed, hands still crawled around his neck. They tightened harder at that comment.

Stein watched the two in a mundane silence, his hand busily digging in his coat pocket and his lips shut. He flicked open his cigarette case and lit one, taking a long drag before he even spared the two a word.

He knew as soon as he opened his eyes that morning that it would be a 'full pack' kind of day.

Exhaling, he sighed. "Spirit, let the boy go. He saved her life last night, if you couldn't tell."

Spirit whipped back to his old meister, "He did?"

Soul gazed at Stein with the same expression, wondering the same thing with just as much confusion.

"His bike crashed," Stein explained, slumping down into his armchair. "That gash on her head was deeper than expected, she'd probably have bled out if he didn't bring her here."

Soul couldn't tell whether he was lying to save him or not, but as he felt the clamp on his neck loosen, he found he didn't care that much. Spirit let Soul drop to the floor and they both came over to the scientist.

"She's okay then?" Spirit asked, wiping his tears away. Soul peeked over his shoulder, awaiting an answer also.

"Yeah she's fine," he droned, rubbing circles in his temple, "I stitched her up last night."

Soul tried to recall when the man ever did that, and he felt anxious when he couldn't remember that moment, "When?"

Stein blew out a puff of smoke, "After you went to sleep. I was going to wait to examine her in the morning but I got a little excited, I couldn't help myself."

Spirit was on top of him before he could even bat an eyelash, shaking his body back and forth wildly, "WHAT DID YOU DO TO—"

A crash thudded through the room, Spirit Albarn now beneath an overturned sofa.

"I didn't _operate_ on her, now shut up and calm down." Stein hissed, lowering his foot from the empty air above him. It was way too early for all that yelling.

Soul sat down on the couch beside his professor and waited impatiently for him to dismiss Spirit. "So what did you find? She seemed–"

"What were those marks? On her neck?" Stein interrupted. Soul let his words die out, stunned at the sudden question.

"What?"

"The bite marks. On her neck." Stein elaborated, slowly. "You two were on a mission recently right?"

Soul thought a moment, "Yeah, but that was from a while ago. Back in Loew. One of Arachne's foot soldiers got a clamp on her." He watched quietly as Stein brainstormed the newly found information. "You think that has something to do with what's happening?"

He hummed in agreement. Soul sighed loudly then, bringing a hand to press against his temple. He should've known that bite was the cause behind this, she had been acting too weird and out of place for it to be anything else. He felt a familiar sense of guilt as he wondered if all of this could've been prevented if he just brought her to the man earlier.

"You said she was dangerous." This brought Soul's eyes to his professors, "Last night. She needed to be confined, why is that?"

Soul slumped back in his seat, rubbing the back of his neck. "You know ever since that bite she's been completely off? First she starts getting all irritable, grumpy you know? And I figure maybe she's just having a bad week or somethin', but it kept getting worse. She got so angry over nothing, it was ridiculous. Then all the sudden I find her in my bed with her damn scythe to my neck, spouting nonsense–"

"Nonsense? What did she say?" Stein tested.

Soul shrugged. "Just…nothing that meant anything. It wasn't her, I swear. She was gone in the eyes. I got her off of me but she passed out, and that's when I brought her to you. But then she woke up and crashed my bike and…"

Stein rose an eyebrow at the hesitation in his voice. He stumbled over the next few words, him being the one spouting nonsense now and Stein could note ten different signs of embarrassment from his appearance alone.

"What did she do when she woke up?"

Soul could feel eyes on him. Stein's was rough enough on him, but the bright blue pair that was radiating a storm next to him on the couch was enough to keep him quiet. He glanced to Spirit, now listening very intently, and cleared his throat.

"She got all…touchy." he mumbled.

Soul hoped that would be enough for the scientist to work with, but the familiar words of, "Can you elaborate?" rang death bells in his head.

Really? He had to sit here and explain to his professor and Maka's _father_ that she had been trying to get in his pants?

Soul glared at Stein and he simply gazed back, that flicker of amusement definitely not going unnoticed by the student.

"She was _flirting_ with me," he bared his teeth, feeling a fume of anger pile up next to him.

"And she caused the crash this way?"

" _Yes_ , like I said before, she was getting _touchy_ and I lost my balance." he gritted. Stein hummed of interest. Spirit on the other hand was muttering various conspiracies on how that night really went.

"She was relentless, she just–she was–" Soul tried to think of a way not to make this sound as bad as it was.

"Would you say she was overcome with lust?" Stein questioned.

"Yes! That! That's it," Soul grinned to Spirit, who glared in reply.

The two in a stare off didn't notice the professor starting towards the bedroom until he was down the hallway. They both followed hot on his feet.

"I knew there was a reason I couldn't tell she was mad," he muttered, mostly to himself. He grinned and knocked open the door to the spare bedroom, revealing a very wide awake Maka. "She's not _mad_ at all."

* * *

Grunts sounded throughout the barren room. Maka sat in her cage, hung more like, upside-down with her knees curled around the top bars. She was covered in sweat and sounded out of breath at each exhale as she curled her chest up to her knees, and slowly brought it back to hang upside down. The boys watched, their eyes following her movements as she worked out without missing a single beat.

"The hell you mean she's not mad?" Soul whispered, as if afraid to interrupt her.

Stein entered the room more, coming around to the side of her cage to observe her more closely, "Does this look like the actions of someone overcome with insanity? Even you must have noticed Soul, this wasn't like before when you two fought against Crona. This is different, much different."

Spirit sniveled out of the blue then, his face smushed up against the bars disgustingly, "Maka…it's daddy. Tell me what's wrong so I can–so I can–" the sobs spilled from his lips then, unable to get the rest of his sentence out without hiccuping. He slumped to his knees in a distressed heap.

Soul ignored the man and came up to Stein. "What the hell is this then, Stein?"

"It's an alternate form," he said, "Those foot soldiers that Arachne had, they were strengthened by Eibon's demons tools when she gathered them all. This is just a theory, but it's possible that whatever magic was left by Eibon in that Arachnid, could have transferred over into Maka when she was bitten."

Soul watched as Maka continued to ignore her father's protests and grunted with each crunch. "So what the hell does that mean?"

Stein grinned at Maka like the madman he was. "It means we've just made a very intriguing discovery, Soul Eater Evans."

Soul didn't like the way that man eyed Maka, but said nothing about it. Professor Stein was out the door again in a blink of his eye, and he followed suit out of dissatisfaction of his last answer. "What kind of discovery?"

"The Arachnids weren't human. They were Kishin eggs, corrupted souls already succumbed to madness; Maka isn't mad, at least not yet." he explained, in a flurry of his own thoughts. "Every person has some level of madness in their soul, usually just burrowed away, like in hibernation until something activates it, like the demon and black blood with you. Eibon's demon tools could be the spark in her insanity here, it's mixed with the madness inside her soul and created something entirely new!"

Stein cackled in pure astonishment and dropped into his rolling chair, spinning around happily, "It's amazing! _That's_ what it is!"

"What is it?" Soul tested.

Stein stopped abruptly in his little spell of glee and gave a dark grin to the boy. "It's found something it knows inside her. Something familiar. All of the items Eibon has made were connected to each other, someway or another. Do you know what that means?"

Soul shook his head uselessly.

Stein shot off in his rolling chair and zoomed back down the hallway towards Maka's room. He skidded to a stop right in the door, gazing at her like she was something entirely new.

"It means it's reacting to the book," he uttered, gently, "The Seven Deadly Sins. I should've known sooner."

Soul came up beside him, dragging his feet in a dumbfounded slur. "You mean Eibon's book? The one we traveled in?"

"You all went into that book clean and came out with a piece of Eibon inside you. It's harmless, that is until too much magic is mixed with it, which is what happened to Maka. Right now, her entire body and mind is overtaken by Eibon's book. She's travelling through the book like she did last time, only in a more personal and intense sense."

"It took time to gradually settle in, but I believe that last little _touchy feely_ stunt she pulled with you last night was just the beginning of it." he said.

"Lust?" questioned Soul.

Stein hummed. "Chapter one. Her soul is trying to exorcise Eibon's magic to cleanse itself, and this is the only way it knows how."

Soul glanced back to Maka now, her father still crumbled by the door to the cage and her torso still working those crunches. He stepped in then, feeling a bit better with a proper explanation of what was happening with his meister, but not by much. It was still a foreign concept, definitely an unusual one at that, and he didn't like it at all.

"Oi Maka," He said. He paused a minute, unsure of what kind of spell she might be experiencing now, and softened his voice. He supposed yelling some sense into her wouldn't do it's natural trick when she would get stubborn with him. "Can you hear me?"

Exhales of air still echoed through the room as she brought herself up and down, up and down again. Her eyes connected with his as she hung upside down at one point, before she broke the contact to curl herself back up.

"What are you doing?" He asked her.

She exhaled a few more times, and Soul was surprised enough to see her hesitate for a moment, and gradually stop. She removed her knees from the bars and hopped down to her feet, her body sleek in sweat and red to the sight. "It's not enough."

She had said that so softly, Soul nearly missed it. He stepped up to ask her to repeat, but he found he didn't have to as she did so anyways. Again and again, in such an pestered way that it angered her.

"Why can't I be like her?" she demanded to know, gripping at her drooping pigtails. She curled her hands around the bars, tightly, and bared her teeth, "It's never enough, never enough."

Maka was restless. She shifted on her feet like she hated staying in place and kept her eyes moving all around, never getting caught on one thing for too long. Finally she snapped and punched the metal bar with a frustrated growl.

"I _need!_ –I need–" she didn't know how to finish it. She didn't know what she needed, she just needed it. All she could see when she closed her eyes was her, _why?_

"Who do you need to be like?" she heard suddenly. She turned and glanced to Soul on the other side of the cage.

" _Her._ " she whispered. "She's perfect. She's so strong and amazing, I need to be like her. I _have_ to be like her."

Soul didn't think he knew of anyone Maka thought of so highly like that, until he heard a soft groan come from his feet. He looked down to Spirit, frowning to himself.

"Her mother." he clarified, "She's the only person she feels inadequate to be compared with. The only idol she ever had, even when I was right there by her side the whole time."

Soul rolled his eyes as tears pricked the man's eyes, "Right, because you're such a person to look up to."

But, her mother. That made a lot more sense to Soul. She wanted to be like her mother, she needed it. She craved it, like nothing she ever did was enough.

"It's greed." Soul heard behind him.

Professor Stein came rolling in and watched as Maka continued to work out now, practicing her punches and kicks in the free space of her cage.

"She doesn't feel satisfied with the power she has now, she wants more. More and more, it's the only thing it could be." he said.

Soul watched for a while longer as she ignored any more comments towards her, and kept at the vigorous routines. She practiced her scythe-work without a scythe, she didn't even care that she was thrown into an animal cage. She didn't care about any of her surroundings, and Soul could tell right then that that was going to be a problem later.

After a while of her non-responsiveness, Soul and Stein left her to herself, deciding she wasn't doing any harm, and dragged Spirit behind themselves.

"She's going full Black Star in there, isn't there anything we can do?" Soul asked, glancing behind him in concern.

Everyone made their way back into the living room, settling down on the couches and finally taking a breath.

"Not really." Stein answered, "This is her way of healing herself. She just needs time to purge the rest of Eibon's magic from her soul and she should go back to normal."

"So she'll be okay then?" Spirit asked hopefully, a glimmer in his eye.

Stein opened his mouth to reply, but Soul's disgruntled voice broke in, "Hold on, hold on. So you're telling me we're going to have to deal with her going through _every_ sin? How long do these spells even last?"

Professor Stein shrugged, "It can vary. This is my first time, after all. And I told you, this is just my theory."

Soul resisted bashing his head into the wall. He slumped back into his seat instead of doing so and pressed a finger to his temple. "Well we can't keep her locked up in that cage forever. She's not an animal, we're gonna have to let her out. Isn't there a way to just snap her out of it? What if we convince her she's just as great as her mom or something?"

Stein sat up in his seat then, "No no no, that would be bad. Very bad."

Soul was tired of feeling surprised at this point, "Another theory?"

"Yes, which all happen to be accurate 99.7% of the time," he said, "If what I'm thinking is correct, then the only reason Maka is able to heal and cleanse her soul like she is, is because she's unsatisfied. The last thing we want to do is indulge her wants, any of them as she travels through the Sins. She'll just keep wanting more and more, that's the point of the Seven Deadly Sins to humans. She's hanging by a thread of being thrown into utter madness. She has to overcome these obstacles of corruption in her mind, soul, and body. The only thing we can control out here is her body, and even then we shouldn't interfere unless it's dire."

No one liked hearing this, but it was something they needed to hear. This was a mission Maka had to take on her own, and it frustrated Soul to no end that he couldn't do anything to help her. He hated all of this.

A cry of frustration echoed throughout Stein's home then. All eyes turned towards the hallways at Maka's scream, hearing more clanging and banging of her intense workouts. Dissatisfaction was always a pain, but this, to Maka, was something on an entirely different level.

Flashes of her failures whizzed by her eyes like a never ending clip of film. It infuriated her that her mother probably never lost so many pathetic times. She smashed her fist into the steel metal bar again, forcing her jaw to clench up. She hated that she felt the pain of that hit, the searing sting that locked her muscles in tremors.

Her fingers felt slimy as blood seeped through the cracks from her knuckles. Her hand trembled in a raging pain, and she hated it. It was never enough. She needed to be better, _she needed more power._

She needed to be better. Better than _Her_.

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 **I will be forever bitter about the chapter hopping Soul and Maka did in Eibon's book. Sort of winged a few of these sins.**

 **Review!**


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